New Nissan Qashqai SUV revealed

Nissan has unveiled the second generation Qashqai SUV for international markets.

Designed in London, engineered in Cranfield and Barcelona and built in Sunderland, UK,  the new Qashqai is armed with a smart new exterior look, more fuel-efficient engines, and, perhaps most significantly, a much higher quality, more premium interior.

The first-generation Qashqai, built in Nissan’s Sunderland plant in the north east of England, has been the most successful model in Nissan Europe’s history, selling around 1.5m units in Europe since 2007 and 2m units worldwide.

“The first car had to make a real ‘wow’ when people saw it,” said Stewart Callegari, Nissan Europe’s product planning chief. “It needed a big impact, and it has done that. With the second generation, we’ve already made the segment and are the market leader. So rather than make one big wow with the car, we took a more mature approach and made a lot of improvements in small areas to appeal to a wider range of European customers.”

With the new Qashqai, Nissan’s main areas of focus were “enhancing the level of technology and design” and “improving the dynamic performance, while maintaining the package, price and size of the current car”, according to Callegari.